Pope Francis warned of the “cancer” of despair that afflicts outwardly affluent societies and called on South Korean Catholics to reject “inhuman economic models” at a mass for 45,000 people on Friday on the first papal trip to Asia in 15 years.
In an apparent reference to South Korea’s high suicide rate, he also warned of the “culture of death” that can pervade rapidly developing countries where the poor are marginalised.
It was the pope’s first public event following his arrival in Seoul on Thursday, which nuclear-armed North Korea marked by firing a series of short-range rockets into the sea.
A capacity crowd had crammed the World Cup stadium in Daejeon, some 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Seoul, hours before the pope arrived to conduct the mass.
Among them were 38 survivors and relatives of victims of April’s Sewol ferry tragedy in which 300 people died, most of them schoolchildren.
During the mass, Pope Francis offered a special prayer for the victims and their families, and urged Koreans “united in grief” to work together for the common good.
